Marie-Antoine Carême
(June 8, 1784 - January 12, 1833)
Marie Antoine Carême was the founder and architect of French haute cuisine. His story is one out of a Dickens novel.
He was one of at least 25 children born to an impoverished family who put him out on the street at the age of about 10 to make his own way in the world. Lucky for the world he knocked on the door of a restaurant for a job. He might have knocked on the door of a shoemaker!!
By the age of 21 he was chef de cuisine to Talleyrand. He also served as head chef to the future George IV of England, Emperor Alexander I of Russia, and Baron James de Rothschild. He wrote several voluminous works on cookery, which included hundreds of recipes, menus, history of French cookery, instructions for organizing kitchens, and of course, instructions for monumental architectural constructions of food for pieces montees.. He died at the age of 48, and is remembered as the “chef of kings and the king of chefs.”
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